Tuesday, April 4, 2017

WonderCon 2017 | Imaginary Mary Interviews

Group shot of Imaginary Mary guests :)

There is a new sitcom on ABC Tuesday nights that is sure to delight you and your family. Imaginary Mary is a show about a woman named Alice and her imaginary friend from childhood. Mary basically helped Alice solve various problems growing up. As she grew older, Mary disappeared since Alice did not need her help anymore. Present day Alice has a successful career, but is lacking in the love life department. She meets a divorced man, Ben, with three kids during a presentation-gone-bad. They fall in love, but her fear of becoming a parent overwhelms her. Her imaginary friend Mary reappears and aims to help her transition from a single woman to a woman ready for a family.

Jenna Elfman and Stephen Schneider

We were fortunate enough at WonderCon to interview the show’s producers and two of the main cast - Jenna Elfman (Alice) and Stephen Schneider (Ben). What is very interesting to us is that it is the first show on television to incorporate a CGI animated character (Mary) into the main cast. This proved to be a huge feat and the producers talked about the challenges that they overcame and how it consistently served as a learning process. They also talked about how the show came to be and what adventures are in store for Alice and Mary.

Jenna and Stephen talked about their on-screen and off-screen relationships to make their roles the best as possible, plus the challenges of having to act with a character that is CGI. Only Jenna's character can see Mary, so most questions concerning Mary went through her. They were a joy to talk with, and their passion to make this an entertaining show is genuine. One of our questions for Jenna was seeing how Imaginary Mary compared to her work on Looney Tunes: Back in Action since they both involve characters that aren’t physically there.

We actually had the chance to meet Mary herself at the interview session. The mascot was such a delight. Definitely bigger than her size on screen. This was such an unexpected appearance during our roundtable interviews. Luckily we had a break between guests when Mary showed up, so we took a few photos to make the time go by. The only thing we were thinking about after this encounter is that the powers-that-be need to make Mary plush dolls right away.

Us and Mary <3

Overall, getting to talk to the creative team behind Imaginary Mary was amazing. They provided insight on the show, which is fascinating considering the extra work that goes into creating a CGI character. This is a show that we highly recommend watching. The first episode that aired last week was entertaining, to say the least. Everyone has had an imaginary friend at some point in their life, so it is heartwarming to see this concept utilized on television, and done so well with an adorable animated character.

Be sure to catch Imaginary Mary on ABC on Tuesday nights at 9:30/8:30c, as of writing this they are two episodes into the season but it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up (;